A series of possible explanations for learning disabilities (LDS) couched in terms of information processing capabilities was tested by comparing the performance of LDS children on several types of information processing tasks with that of a control group. Subjects were 28 LDS children (10-11 years old) and 24 elementary school students of the…

From a review of empirical research, a new theoretical synthesis of anxiety's effect on learning and memory is proposed: anxiety always reduces processing effectiveness, by generating task-irrelevant processing activities, but this will not impair performance efficiency if sufficient compensatory effort is expended. (SJL)

The interdisciplinary approach of cognitive neuroscience in studying mind-brain relations is discussed. (SA)

Reports on experiments examining the semantic organization of concrete nouns and verbs and its development in childhood. Differences in semantic organization are said to be a clue to age-related changes in performance with verbs. (AM)

Discusses cognitive style (the degree to which perception is influenced by environmental variables) and cognitive control (which focuses on the regulation of perception by the ego). Concepts addressed include field dependence-independence, field articulation, conceptual style, cognitive tempo, intrusive information, focal attention, and…

Examines evidence supporting the view that speech recoding is necessary prior to lexical access, explores an alternative view (that speech recoding occurs in working memory), describes an experiment suggesting that meaning analyses during reading can occur without speech recoding in working memory, and discusses models of reading. (GT)

In this study retrospective verbal reports were collected in order to study cognitive processes activated when solving simple additions. The research was devoted to a revision and validation of the earlier presented process model (Svenson 1975) by using retrospective verbal reports as a complement to the response latencies analyzed earlier.…

This article offers insights into mnemonic strategies ("mental elaboration") of foreign-language learners, with implications for vocabulary learning in the target language. (DB)

Two experiments study the effects of structure and content variables on memory and comprehension of prose passages. The first experiment tests the effects of systematically varying the amount of structure present in to-be-learned passages. The second experiment assesses the independent contributions of structure and content variables in…

Examined the relationship between infants' attachment quality and attention and memory at 3.5 years. Found that insecure/avoidant and insecure/ambivalent children looked away from mother-child drawings more than secure children. Secure children better recalled stories in which mothers responded sensitively than did insecure/avoidant children, and…

Four experiments were performed to validate the newly developed Test of Memory Malingering (TOMM). Results with 475 community-dwelling adults and young adults and 161 neurologically impaired people in three experiments and a fourth experiment involving 41 college students show the promise of the TOMM for detecting exaggerated or faked memory…

This study found that violent or horrible images in news stories increased attention, amount of capacity required to process a message, and ability to retrieve a story; facilitated recognition of information presented during a video; inhibited recognition for information presented before; and indicated that negative images increased the…

Two experiments examined the communicative bases of preschoolers' object appearance-reality (AR) errors. Found that AR performance correlated positively with performance on a control test with the same discourse structure but nondeceptive stimuli, and on a naming test. Overall findings indicated that the discourse structure of AR tests elicits a…

The influence of selected cognitive factors on age-related changes in speech recognition was examined by measuring the effects of recall task, speech rate, and availability of contextual cues on the recognition performance of 10 young listeners (ages 18-40) and 10 older listeners (ages 65-76). Hearing loss affected performance. (Author/CR)